Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 48

By the time we reached downtown, we still had six hours of daylight left. We met up with Felipe, Margot, and Gabe. The latter honked once when we stopped by the intersection, and I realized they were driving back to the mansion. We trailed behind them, dropping the food in the mansion.

They didn't take the news, which made our plan to Albany trickier, especially with our plan about the armory. Clemons was the only man we could trust who would know where it was (and maybe, if I played my cards right, allow us to get some weapons). Mostly everything hinged on Clemons using his credentials to take us away from the area, but our escape got narrower. A drive to the border was equally dangerous compared to facing a full-on vector horde.

But like all hiccups, we had to improvise. Hell, most of my fucking plans since New York had been improvised, and it certainly worked out well for itself. If we had to find the armory, there was a high chance we would have to stay for the night.

A lot of people were not pleased with the plan. They thought about the vector horde moving north and how they could stumble upon us without warning. However, we were outgunned if we did get attacked, and that meant a bullet was all it took to save our asses, and West Point had everything we would need to keep our limbs intact.

No one argued after that.

We fleshed out the details when Miguel suggested it would not be enough to search the armory with only Logan, Luke, Yousef, and me. Two or three more people were needed, and Aria quickly volunteered, surprising Logan and me.

"The boys there hadn't had lunch yet," she said. "I made some food here. Bacon, waffles, and chicken tenders. Might as well give Luke and Yousef some."

I nodded, knowing that wasn't all why she wanted to go. I hid a smile, thinking if Aria really was smitten with Yousef. I wondered what the boy had done to impress her so much.

Miguel volunteered (and argued why he shouldn't be assigned to babysitting duty), and Gabe proposed to bring the boat out onto the middle of the water. Staying on land posed a high risk than staying in the water.

Two more volunteers stepped forward—Alfie and Steve. I was surprised that the old man offered himself for the job. He had done whatever he could for his granddaughter. Steve felt better that Gabe was in the boat to watch over her, and he wanted to help. Gabe was none too pleased, but I sensed that he couldn't argue his grandfather out of his decision.

In the end, we packed into the Jeep.

"Keep the boat's radio on channel 19. Wait for our word if the campus is clear once we find a CB radio," Logan told Gabe.

Gabe nodded. "Tomorrow morning, if I still don't get a word from either of you, I'll sail the boat to the south dock of campus at eight AM sharp. You won't miss it as it's at the bottom of the campus hill. Very easy to spot. I will wait for fifteen minutes there. If none of you show up—" he choked up when his eyes locked to his grandfather, "I will take the rest to Albany by boat. I will protect them."

Steve smiled from the backseat, leaned forward, and patted Gabe's hand by the open passenger seat's window. "Quit being fucking dramatic, Gabriel. I will drag these kids myself in body bags if I have to, so don't be so grim and ruin a perfectly sunny fucking day," Steve said with as much sincerity and tenderness that all Gabe could do was laugh.

—

Luke and Yousef planned to be in the southern area from campus, so we looked there. We took Thayer Road until we reached the West Point guard gate, but it sat empty. Logan drove through it. It took us a few seconds to spot the blue BMW with its shiny gleam, which stuck out in a row of dull colors.